OotP 9

[jlh]

Am in Johnland for 4th July. Happy Independence Day!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I am frequently appalled by what my government does in my name, but at the end of the day, it's a great country.

This is a long one, because there is SO MUCH packed in this chapter.

And Dumbledore takes off without even telling Mr. Weasley what happened! Gah! But I love how here and in the previous chapter Arthur keeps giving Harry very subtle nonverbal cues. (And I'm sorry, but that throw down with Malfoy? Point of that?)

I just saw the British children's version of OotP and I loved the back cover illustration of the fountain, because it perfectly captured what that fountain is all about:

"He looked up into the handsome wizard's face, but close-to Harry thought he looked rather weak and foolish. The witch was wearing a vapid smile like a beauty contestant, and from what Harry knew of goblins and centaurs, they were most unlikely to be caught staring so soppily at humans of any description. Only the house-elf's attitude of creeping servility looked convincing. With a grin at the thought of what Hermione would say if she could see the statue of the elf, Harry turned his moneybag upside-down and emptied not just ten Galleons, but the whole contents into the pool."
(UK p142)

Though, where does Harry get the money? Does Gringott's have branches?

Note that Ron says that Harry "always gets away with stuff". Note that only Hermione notices that his scar bothers him. Cringe at Hermione's far-to-pleased-with-herself "wisdom" about Sirius.

For all that Molly is maternal toward Harry, when Ron is made prefect, Harry is forgotten. (I'm sure if Harry were her own son, he would have at least got a stern, "and why aren't YOU a prefect?") I love his petulance, and then later his ability to talk himself out of his bad mood. Though I do feel bad that everyone is so surprised that Ron was made prefect. I agree with Kingsley here--it would have shown Harry that Dumbledore has confidence in him, and Harry really needs someone other than Sirius to be firmly on his side.

And then at the party, Harry is moody again--down, up when he finds out about James, down again when he overhears Kingsley. [moment of great love for Remus the Ineffective Prefect] I think the James-wasn't-a-Prefect thing may be setting up Harry-as-Head-Boy, though I do hope not. (Wow, Fred and George have NO respect for authority whatsoever, do they?) And then Moody shows him the picture entirely forgetting that Harry isn't yet hardened despite his experiences.

And then poor Molly is so scared! Wow, the last war was MUCH grimmer than I had ever thought.

And then, that last line: "He felt older than he had ever felt in his life and it seemed extraordinary to him that barely an hour ago he had been worried about a joke shop and who had got a prefect's badge."

Yeah.

Comments

[altricial.livejournal.com]

That is my fave chapter ever :D

I was just telling Marysia the other day that, much as I love Ron, I really can't imagine why he would be made prefect other than Dumbledore (who assumes he knows what is best for Harry) indirectly giving both Harry's friends some sort of power that might help them go on Dumbledore-manipulated adventures. :-?

[ex-lunasparr180.livejournal.com]

You see, I don't get that statement in your Constitution. They're great goals to work towards but:

1. All people are not created equal. Some are rich and some are poor. Some are smart and some are dumb. Some are talented and some are not. That is never going to change regardless of any Constitution.
2. Pursuit of happiness gets me too. Is life really about the pursuit of happiness? What happens if you have to ruin someone's else's life in order to obtain happiness? Is that your inalienable right to do so? Is happiness the most important thing? What about self-sacrifice for the good of the majority?

I like those sentiments but I'm not sure in the end that they're true.

[dramaturgy.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite chapters.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the first thing to understand is that I wasn't quoting our Constitution, I was quoting the Declaration of Independence, which is not law. The Declaration--which was signed on July 4, 1776 and therefore is more to the point for Independence Day--was really an open letter to the other nations of the world saying, "We are not just rabble-rousers, we are thoughtful men who have a real dispute with our King." In fact, it goes on to list about 20 crimes that the King had committed against the Colonies. And it's so American to decide that our country dates from the moment we declared our Independence, as opposed to when we won it, which wasn't until some years later. The Bill of Rights that was added to the Constitution in 1789 tried to transform these statements into law to a certain extent.

I think that the idea that all men are created equal, at that time, was pretty controversial because what they were actually saying was that you are not automatically born into a certain way of life. Breaking out of that way of life takes courage and hard work, of course, but it can be done. It is that statement that most of the civil rights movements of the 20th century were founded on, and the emphasis I put on "all" was actually not present in the original document, but was the way that Dr. King would quote that line. Are we there? No. But it's a goal to work toward.

Your right is NOT to happiness, it is to the PURSUIT of happiness. It means that you have the right to structure your life to pursue what you like, as opposed to the society saying, "Your father was a blacksmith, so you shall be a blacksmith"; you can fuck off and be a lawyer if you want to. You do not have the right to ruin someone else's life to obtain happiness--that's when the society makes laws that balance what one group is doing with what another group is doing.

The thing about any late-18th century document is that our sense of language is very different than theirs. Happiness in many ways has been redefined to be about some immediate and transitory carnal pleasure as opposed to, "I want to be a history professor." Equality is though of in a total and absolute way because so many of the other barriers to equality have been removed or are being removed. So, yes, I agree that these things are self-evident, but then again, I'm an American, and that's what my country is about.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. I agree with Marysia; I would have given it to Dean if it couldn't be Harry. But Ron and Hermione can't really cover for Draco or someone taking points from Harry anyway.

This chapter, I think, is like the second episode of Twin Peaks. EVERYTHING is in here, all the big themes, in one fairly compact chapter. And it's very well written, well paced. It isn't until you stop to write about that you realize everything she's crammed into it, really in one afternoon/evening of time. Would that the last chapters were as well-written as this one.